Tattoo Tuesday – Kristen Strassel

I loved this tattoo story because it shows you can cover a bad tattoo, but still hold on to the cool tattoo memory.

Kristen, your five questions start now:

1. How old were you when you got your first tattoo?

Seventeen. Same day as I took my SATs. Tattoo parlors weren’t legal in Massachusetts yet, so a friend of mine heard about a home party an artist from New Hampshire was hosting. A bunch of us got appointments, and got inked. Two of my friends and I went together, we’re the only girls there, besides the artist’s mother, who owns the house. The place is full of biker dudes. We waited our turn, sitting at the kitchen table with the artist’s mom, who was a cute little old lady, drinking coffee and eating cake while she helped us pick out tattoos.

2. How many tattoos do you have? If only one, do you want more?

Four. Everyone I still talk to that went to that party have had that party tattoo covered, including me. I have a flower anklet covering my first tattoo, a hummingbird above it, and leopard print on my other ankle. I may get another, this time on my shoulder.

3. What inspired you to get your first tattoo or favorite tattoo? Tell me your tattoo story.

Like I said above, that first tat had to GO. When I lived in California, I told a friend that I wanted to get it covered, and she literally pulled a U-turn in the middle of a busy road and brought me straight to Huntington Beach Tattoo. I told them I wanted a flower anklet, and they handed me a botany book. I picked hibiscus, because they were my grandmother’s favorite flower (and back to that eventful first tattoo…my mom said I could get a tattoo, because she thought I’d chicken out. Imagine her surprise when I came back inked. All she had for me was, “Now go show your grandmother.” Damn it. So I headed in to the living room, announced my that I got a tattoo, and my grandmother LIKED it. My poor mother misjudged both of us.), and California poppies, because I got it in California.

4. Tattoos on a significant other, like or dislike? Explain why?

Yes. Within reason, of course. I like nice ink. On anyone. I’m a little judgy when it comes to tattoos, so if it looks like someone’s cellmate inked it with a hot piece of metal and pen ink, yuck. I like well thought out tattoos. Even my leopard print means something to me (which if you know me, you know it’s my favorite color, it’s a neutral, and it goes with everything.). When people just start getting dumb tattoos in rapid succession, no thank you. And you know those people…the ones who go from nothing to thirty-two tattoos in nine months.

5. Do the characters in your books have tattoos? If so, pick a character and tell me his or her tattoo story? Why was this story incorporated in the book?

Tristan, who is my male love interest in Because the Night and the upcoming We Own the Night, has a full sleeve. Tristan can be extremely impulsive, a dance on the edge kind of guy, but he’s also pretty thoughtful. We never quite get the story of why he chose his sleeve, because the story is not told from his POV and Callie never asks, only admires it, but here’s what she says:

“The images danced together, the sky and heavens peeked from beneath his short sleeve, weaving into goddesses and stars, bursting into flames around his wrist. It looked the story of his life.”